Detached Melt Nucleation during Diffusion Brazing of a Technical Ni-based Superalloy: A Phase-Field Study

Advanced solidification processes like welding, soldering, and brazing are often characterized by their specific solidification conditions. But they also may include different types of melting processes which themselves are strongly influenced by the initial microstructures and compositions of the applied materials and therefore are decisive for the final quality and mechanical properties of the joint. Such melting processes are often not well-understood because - compared to other fields of solidification science - relatively little research has been done on melting by now. Also, regarding microstructure simulation, melting has been strongly neglected in the past, although this process is substantially different from solidification due to the reversed diffusivities of the involved phases. In this paper we present phase-field simulations showing melting, solidification and precipitation of intermetallic phases during diffusion brazing of directionally solidified and heat-treated high-alloyed Ni-based gas turbine blade material using different boron containing braze alloys. Contrary to the common belief, melting of the base material is not always planar and can be further accompanied by detached nucleation and growth of a second liquid phase inside the base material leading to polycrystalline morphologies of the joint after solidification. These findings are consistent with results from brazed laboratory samples, which were characterized by EDX and optical microscopy, and can be explained in terms of specific alloy thermodynamics and inter-diffusion kinetics. Consequences of the gained new understanding for brazing of high-alloyed materials are discussed.